Denise Rossetti: THE FOUR-SIDED PENTACLE

Author: Denise Rossetti

Series: THE FOUR-SIDED PENTACLE (Erotic SMR Fantasy)

Ratings: V5; S4; H2-3

Publisher and Titles: 

   The Flame and the Shadow (2008) (Grayson and Cenda)

   Thief of Light (2009) (Erik and Prue)

   Laced with Desire (2010) (Rhio and Dancer—set in the FOUR-SIDED PENTACLE world)

   The Lone Warrior (2011) (Walker and Mehcredi)

     I broke my own rule when I read The Lone Warrior without first checking to see if it is part of a series. But in this case, the author actually gives the reader permission to read it as a stand-alone. On her web site, Rossetti says, "Anything I write can be read as a stand-alone. Personally, I dislike hanging on and on and...on for the resolution at the very end of a series. That said, there are overarching motifs and of course, the world-building, which I make up as I go along. If you can, read my books in the order laid out below. If you can't, don't worry about it. You'll be fine - go ahead anyway. *smile*." 

     So...I'll review The Lone Warrior today, and then I'll go back and read the earlier books and update this blog entry at a later date with reviews of the earlier books.

     This is a fantasy world set in an imaginary land that seems to be a mash-up of ancient Turkey (pashas), North Africa (desert nomads), and Medieval Europe (keeps and feudal lords). In The Lone Warrior, the hero is Walker, a sword master and shaman who can pull power from the earth. The heroine is Mehcredi, a newbie captured by Walker in the opening scene. Mehcredi was hired by the  villainous Necromancer to kill a powerful mage, but she mistakenly poisoned an innocent who happens to be one of Walker's good friends. Walker drags Mehcredi back to his home (the House of Swords) and punishes her by forcing her into servitude. Walker starts out hating Mehcredi, of course, as does everyone else in his household. But gradually, Mehcredi wins people over with her blunt and honest approach to life and her seeming inability to tell a lie. 

     Mehcredi has had a terrible life: an orphan from birth, a child slave, a magnet for male abuse, and finally a failed assassin.  By the way, I've read a few reviews of this book, and each reviewer has failed to understand the reason why the Baron of Lonefell turned his back on Mehcredi from the time that he first saw her, immediately after her birth. Pay particular attention to the first few paragraphs of the Prologue as the olive-skinned Baron gazes down at his ivory-skinned, rosy-cheeked daughter, then looks over at his olive-skinned wife, and then stares out the window at his pale-skinned, platinum-blond sergeant of the guard. Rossetti lets us imagine the whole story in just a few subtle sentences—but you must read very carefully.

     Walker has his own problematic past. His life is dedicated to wreaking vengeance on the diablomen (demon-possessed) who wiped out his entire tribe, the Shar. Walker has killed all but one of them, and he's on the trail of the last one. 

     When Walker gets word that his final enemy, a pasha, has left the safety of his palace, he takes Mehcredi along with him on his journey, and—naturally enough—they fall in lust. Make no mistake, Rossetti is a writer of erotica, so you can expect plenty of graphically depicted sensuality.

     Over and above the Walker-Mehcredi relationship, the plot revolves around an insurgency of djinns. Usually, djinns are portrayed as spirits from a parallel world to mortal earth, but these particular djinns have arrived from a slightly different place.

     Supporting characters are the couples from the previous books, all of whom have magical talents, from flame throwing to casting spells. One character who seems to be common to all of the books is Deiter, a powerful wizard and a bit of a jerk. The series title refers to a living, magical pentacle with its sides formed by three of the supporting characters, each of whom can control an element: air, earth, and flame. The person who will be the fourth side (water) is still to be determined.

     If you enjoy fantasy and erotic romance, you will probably like this book. Rossetti tells a good story, and her characters have enough depth to keep the reader interested in their lives. The dialogue can be disconcerting at times as it is filled with phrases that are right out of the 21st century, but there are also archaic words, such as trews (for trousers). It's almost as if the author couldn't quite make up her mind about the time frame. Other than that, however, the dialogue seems natural and believable. Mehcredi's back story is a bit melodramatic. For example, when she was an infant, she was left alone for days but still survived—kind of implausible, but then, this is a fantasy.

     I'm looking forward to reading the earlier books, and I'll let you know more about them in the near future.   

Graham Joyce: "The Silent Land"

Author: Graham Joyce

Title: The Silent Land (Otherworldly Suspense)

Ratings: V2; S4; H2

Publisher: Doubleday (2010)

     I have to say right from the beginning that this book is not paranormal fiction. So, why, you say, is it being reviewed on a paranormal fiction blog? Well..simply  put, it's a great read and it does have a heavy touch of other-worldliness to it—no supernatural creatures, but it does have an element of fantasy and just a touch of creepiness. This is a compelling story, one that will keep you reading into the night, and looking over your shoulder every once in awhile.

     When Zoe and Jake go out on a mountainside in the Pyrenees early one winter morning, they believe that they will spend this, the second day of their ski vacation, slaloming down the slopes. Their dream of a perfect day is shattered, however, when an avalanche catches up with them and buries them in the snow. After freeing themselves, they head back to their hotel only to find it completely deserted—not a single person anywhere. The near-by village is also empty of humanity, seemingly evacuated at a moment's notice. Zoe and Jack make themselves comfortable, warming up in a steamy bath and fixing a meal in the hotel kitchen. The next day, they try to drive to a neighboring town, only to go off the road, almost over a cliff. They try again the next day, but the road brings them back to where they started. No one answers the phone, no matter who they call. Candles that they light one evening still burn brightly the next evening. And the story gets stranger and stranger from there.

     Zoe and Jake have been married for ten years and love each other tremendously, but they have had rough spots over the years.  At first, they seem to be an average, uncomplicated couple: Jake, the practical protector and Zoe, the optimistic achiever. But as their adventure and their touching love story stretch out over the days, we take a closer look and begin to see them as  complex and interesting individuals. Joyce handles their dialogue in a believable, natural manner, with both humor-filled banter and serious conversations ringing true. Each character is presented sympathetically, with both strengths and imperfections.

     Most of the chapters deal with Zoe and Jake's adventures on the mountain, but two chapters tell the stories of final days of each one's father. Both of these chapters attempt to answer the question, what exactly is death? These sections are powerful and eloquent explorations of the unknowability of death and the hereafter.

     Although you, like Zoe and Jake, may begin to figure out what is happening, you probably won't see the total reality of the ending until the moment that Zoe herself suddenly understands the situation. As the couple gradually figures things out, they become stronger, more mature, more loving people, each striving to help the other make it through to whatever their ending will be.

     Joyce's matter-of-fact-prose moves along straightforwardly, yet it has a dreamy quality to it, catching us up in the frosty mist and the swirling winds. Tension mounts subtly, with no one event pushing our fear button, but as the characters' uneasiness grows so does ours. The bittersweet ending is enough to bring even the most hard-hearted reader to the edge of tears.

     And speaking of endings: I know that some of you are addicted to reading the ending of a book first, but I'm begging you not to do that with this one. If you do, you really will spoil the story for yourself, and you'll be sorry for that.

     Joyce, a science fiction/fantasy author, has written 12 previous works of fiction for adults (including The Tooth Fairy, How to Make Friends with Demons and The Limits of Enchantment) and several for young adults. This is the first of his books that I have read, but based on the quality and style of The Silent Land, I plan to read more.

Nice Review of "Fang-tastic Fiction"

Here is another nice review of my book, Fang-tastic Fiction. 

This one is on the web site for VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocacy, the library magazine serving those who serve young adults). 

Click HERE to go directly to that review, the second one on the page.

Keri Arthur: MYTH AND MAGIC SERIES

Author: Keri Arthur

Series: MYTH AND MAGIC SERIES (SMR) 

Ratings: V4, S4, H2

Dell: Destiny Kills (2008); Mercy Burns (2010) 

     The second book in this series has just been published and is reviewed after a brief look at the series so far:

    In this world, shape-shifting air dragons exist in 13 cliques alongside, but unknown by, mortals. Sea dragons, on the other hand, live as individuals, not in cliques. Each clique is ruled by a king, and, as you would expect, each king has his own way of dealing with the power and wealth that accompany his office—some worse than others. Alongside the dragons live the half-breed dramans, mostly born of dragon fathers and human mothers. In the world of air dragons, the male gets to decide whether his sperm will impregnate his female partner, while with the sea dragons, the female gets to decide.

Destiny Kills

     As book 1 opens, Destiny McCree, a half-breed air-sea dragon, wakes up on an Oregon beach next to the dead body of her friend and lover, Egan Jamieson, the son of the king of the Jamieson clique. Destiny has gaps in her memory, but she soon begins to recall details about her past. As it turns out, Destiny was captured and held captive for eleven years in Scotland  (on the banks of Loch Ness) by cruel scientists who consider the shape-shifting dragons to be animals fit only to be drugged and studied. Eventually, Destiny and Egan escaped, but were pursued by hunters who killed Egan. Now, Destiny is on the run. As she is making her escape, she almost literally collides with Trae Wilson, Egan's half brother, who is searching for Egan. Trae is a draman—half human and half air dragon. The two soon strike a mutually beneficial deal. Trae agrees to help Destiny get to her dying father in Maine and then assist her in rescuing her mother and some young dragons from the Scotland prison laboratory. In return, Destiny agrees to hand over Egan's serpent ring to Trae so that he can trade it to his malevolent father for information about his missing sister. The plot sound convoluted, but it's really not that hard to follow. Of course, Trae and Destiny fall in love along the way.

Mercy Burns

     Book 2 features Trae’s half-sister, Mercy Reynolds, who is a draman (half human, half air dragon). Mercy lives in San Francisco, where she is an investigative newspaper reporter. As the story  opens, Mercy and her BFF, Rainey (a sea dragon), are trying to solve the mystery of the murder of Rainey's sister in an ethnic-cleansing type of crime in which an entire village of rogue draman was wiped out. When their car is run off a cliff by a truck, Rainey dies and Mercy must track down and punish her murderer within seven days in order to send Rainey's soul on to its final rest. Moving ahead with her investigation, Mercy finds herself drugged and imprisoned by some mysterious men. When Mercy and her fellow prisoner, Damon Rey, escape, they discover that they are working on the same case. Damon is a muerte (the Spanish word for death), an assassin who works for the Dragon Council, which oversees the 13 cliques and which is....wait for it...terribly corrupt. Didn't you see that coming? Those supernatural councils are ALWAYS corrupt! As their investigation proceeds, the sparks begin to fly—sometimes literally—in Mercy and Damon's relationship. We don't meet the primary villain until the end of the book (most of the dirty work is done by his minions), but Mercy is disturbed to discover that the case has ties to her troubled past. 

     The relationship between dragons and draman is at the heart of the story. Mercy has had a rough childhood as a draman growing up in a dragon clique where draman are considered to be second-class citizens and where female draman are at the mercy of the macho male dragons—and she has the scars to prove it. Damon has always gone along with the party line on draman: that they are not to be trusted, that they put the dragon world at risk of discovery by humans, and that their powers should probably be curtailed. Naturally enough, the couple must work through this culture clash before they can achieve their HEA ending.

     I'm hoping that Arthur eventually tells Leith's story. This sea dragon is Mercy's private detective friend whom we hear in a series of telephone conversations but never see. He gets his information from hacking into computer systems and from his assistant, Janelle, a gifted psychic.

     Keri Arthur is a master story teller who excels in both the paranormal romance and urban fantasy genres. In this series, she has created complex, likable characters and has put them into fresh and inventive plots. The  expected angst is always there, but not so much that it overwhelms the plot. And don't forget the bedroom scenes, which are always hot high points in Arthur's stories. All in all, this is a terrific SMR series, and I read each book in one sitting. One thing I especially liked about both books is that the heroines can take care of themselves. They can handle a weapon, and they can fight back with their dragon powers, and they're not afraid to do so. These ladies are definitely not the shrinking violets that we so often find in paranormal romances.

     If you haven't read Arthur's RILEY JENSON, GUARDIAN urban fantasy series, you might want to give that a try. Riley is a dhampire—half werewolf and half vampire enforcer, or Guardian, who lives in Melbourne, Australia (where Arthur also lives). 

     Arthur has a new series coming out this fall (DARK ANGELS) that includes some of Riley's  Melbourne world. Here is Arthur's description of DARK ANGELS from her FAQ page:  "Next up is Risa’s series. Risa is Dia’s little girl in Riley’s series, and now she’s getting her own. This one will explore the Aedh (the race Quinn and Risa come from) as well as reapers and demons. There will still be vamps, werewolves and shifters, as it’s set in the same world, but they just won’t be as front and center as they were in Riley’s series." Darkness Unbound will be published in September, followed by Darkness Rising in October, and Darkness Devours in early 2012.

WSJ: "The Season of the Supernatural"

Check it out! 

Today's Wall Street Journal has a great summer paranormal fiction article: The Season of the Supernatural.

Click on the title above to go directly to the article.

New MTV Werewolf Series: TEEN WOLF

Attention all werewolf fans!  

Don't forget that June 5th is the big day for the premier of the brand new MTV series Teen Wolf. This series is based very loosely on the 1985 Michael J. Fox movie of the same name. Click on the pink links below to get further info:

A NY Times Magazine article about the series: "We Are All Teenage Werewolves"    

The web page for the series, which contains both information and sneak-peek videos: Teen Wolf

UPDATE! Caris Roane: GUARDIANS OF ASCENSION

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Caris Roane with a review of the newest book in her GUARDIANS OF ASCENSION series: Burning Skies. 

Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

Jenna Black: NIKKI GLASS/DESCENDANTS SERIES

Author:  Jenna Black

Series:  NIKKI GLASS/DESCENDANTS SERIES
Plot Type:  UF

Ratings:  V5; S2-3; H2

Publisher and Titles:  Pocket
          Dark Descendant (2011)
          Deadly Descendant (2012)

     This blog entry was revised and updated on 8/15/12 to include a review of the second book in the series, Deadly Descendant. That review comes first, followed by an overview of the series world-building and the previously posted review of book 1:

          BOOK 2:  Deadly Descendant          

     As the second book opens, Nikki is beginning to settle in at Anderson's mansion—the headquarters for his group of Liberi good guys, but she still feels like an outsider. In the first chapter, the Olympian oracle pays a visit the mansion to reveal a vision about a serial killer who is using a pack of dogs (rabid jackals, as it turns out) as a weapon to kill humans. The oracle senses that this is a supernatural murderer and asks for Anderson's help in tracking him down—or more specifically, Nikki's help, because of the superior tracking skills that come from Nikki's ancestor, Artemis. As Nikki investigates the case, she is assisted by Jamaal, who spent book 1 trying to kill her because she killed his best friend. As they work together, their relationship warms up—sometimes to a fiery degree. During one attempt to catch the killer, Nikki gets bitten by the jackals and goes through a horrendous life/death/life experience.

     In the meantime back at the mansion, Emma (Anderson's wife) is causing lots of problems. Even though Nikki rescued Emma from her 10-year imprisonment by Konstantin, Emma hates Nikki and accuses her of trying to take Anderson away from her. Emma also fights constantly with her husband about his hesitancy about going after Konstantin for what he and his Olympians did to Emma. The situation between Emma and Nikki gets so bad that Nikki contemplates leaving Anderson's group for good. Emma's character reminds me of Rayseline in Seanan McGuire's OCTOBER DAYE series. Both characters are kidnapped by an enemy, held for a long period of time, and return as jealous and malevolent harridans who do their best to undermine their husbands.

     The two story lines—savage jackals and spiteful wife—are interwoven and are both tied up at the conclusion of the book after the requisite climactic showdown between Nikki and the killer. By the end, Nikki's love life is still a question mark, but now there are now two possible contenders: Jamaal and Anderson. Actually, this book frequently reads more like a paranormal romance than an urban fantasy as it places Nikki into frequent emotionally intimate scenes with both romantic contenders. The action plot isn't quite as strong as the one in book 1, and it sometimes seems rushed and secondary to the romance.

     In general, though, this is a solid follow-up to book 1, and it (thankfully) adds some clarification to the mythology. Regarding the question of just who is immortal: The Liberi are immortal (not the descendants), which means that the Liberi do not age and they can heal from most wounds and illnesses, but they can be killed if enough violence is used against them. A descendant who kills a Liberi receives the dead Liberi's seed of immortality. The magical talents of the newly created Liberi are those that come from his or her ancestral god or goddess, not those of the dead Liberi who was the source of the seed. Click HERE to read an excerpt from chapter 1 on amazon.com.

          WORLD-BUILDING          

     In this very interesting world, which is set in the Washington, D.C., area, two rival groups of immortals vie for power. Both groups call themselves Liberi Deorum, which is Latin for "children of the gods"  because their ancestors were the gods of various cultures. One group—the Olympians—believe that they are the master race of the Liberi because they accept only descendants of the Greek gods, whom they believe are far superior to the rest of the theistic panoply. The other Liberi group accepts descendants of the gods of any culture. 

     Each Liberi is marked with a holographic glyph, usually on the hand, which represents the appropriate ancestral god or goddess and can be seen only by another Liberi. Each Liberi also has a unique magical power that corresponds to his or her godly ancestor. The good guys are led by Anderson Kane, an immortal with mysterious powers, and in the first two books, the haughty Olympians are led by the evil Konstantin. In essence, Anderson's group believes that the Liberi should use their supernatural powers to help make the world a better place, while the Olympians believe that they should spend their time purifying the ranks of the Liberi, which to them means purging all non-Greek Liberi.

     Here is a brief explanation of the history of the Descendants, as explained to our heroine: "A long time ago, when the ancient gods were still around, they had children with mortals. Before the gods left Earth, they gave each of their children a seed from the Tree of Life. This seed made them immortal, and the Liberi thought they were gods themselves as a result. The only limitation they had—as far as they knew—was that they couldn't make their own children immortal....What the first Liberi didn't know until too late was that anyone with even a drop of divine blood—in other words, all their children and descendants—could steal their immortality by killing them." (Dark Descendant, p. 41) In other words, if a mortal descendant of the gods steals a seed by killing a Liberi, he or she will achieve immorality by becoming a Liberi.

     Both the Olympians and Anderson's Liberi are always on the lookout for descendants and unallied Liberi. The Olympians try to coerce the Greek Liberi into joining them, and they generally kill the non-Greek Liberi, whom they believe are weak and worthless. Anderson's group tries to save all descendants and Liberi, creating fake personal records to hide them from the Olympians. 

          BOOK 1:  Dark Descendant          

     Into this world stumbles our heroine, Nikki Glass, who is a talented private detective with excellent tracking skills. As the story opens, Nikki is in the middle of a case in which her client (Emmitt) wants her help in saving his girlfriend from a religious cult—or at least that is the story he tells her. One dark and stormy night, Emmitt asks Nikki to meet him at the cult's residence, and she uneasily does so, only to fall into a terrible trap that changes her life forever. Nikki finds herself in the middle of a small group of crazies who claim to be descended from gods and goddesses and who blame her for Emmitt's death. After they brutally beat her up, they throw her in a prison cell, accusing her of being an Olympian spy. Eventually, some of them soften towards Nikki, but by this time she wants no part of them, even after they tell her all about the descendants and the Liberi and tell her that she is one of them (a descendant of Artemis) and is now immortal. Oh...and they claim that they are the good guys. Right! Nikki's too smart to believe that!

     After escaping from the Anderson's Liberi, Nikki is soon approached by a strange and unpleasant man who threatens that if she doesn't join the Olympians, they will harm her sister. What's a girl to do? Both sides want her superior tracking skills, and both sides are violent, rude, and cruel, but Nikki knows that she can't keep her sister safe by herself. The rest of the plot involves Nikki's first task for the group she chooses: finding the wife of the group's leader, who has been imprisoned for ten years by the opposition.

     This first book is filled with lots of expositional material. We learn all about the characters we'll be seeing in future books, and we learn the history of both groups. We also look back at Nikki's very sad childhood, in which she was abandoned by her mother and then dumped into a series of foster homes. Finally, Nikki was adopted by the wealthy Glass family and considers Steph Glass as her true sister. Just one discordant note here: Why does Nikki call her adoptive parents Mr. Glass and Mrs. Glass? That seems a bit formal, doesn't it?

     Many of the characters (on both sides) are truly unpleasant. They have lots of power, and they're not shy about using it, particularly on people they don't trust. Even after Nikki saves the day, so to speak, in the climax of the story, they still don't trust her completely. But then again, she doesn't fully trust them either. 

     I love the fresh and inventive world that Black has built here, though some parts are a bit confusing. The whole business about who is immortal and who isn't is not always made clear. And also, how can Anderson's Liberi be considered the good guys since they are immortal (meaning that they took someone else's immortality by killing them)? What's "good" about that? One last nitpick about continuity: At first, Nikki's glyph is on her forehead (p. 39), but then it's on her hand (p. 41). Which is it? Even with those complaints, I did enjoy Dark Descendant and am looking forward to the next book. I believe that I spotted the very beginnings of an attraction between Nikki and her primary nemesis, at least I hope so, because that would be an extremely interesting relationship. Click HERE to read chapter 1.

     Jenna Black also writes the MORGAN KINGSLEY series (5 books, UF) and the GUARDIANS OF THE NIGHT series (4 books, SMR), as well as the FAERIEWALKER series for young adults.

Christine Feehan: LEOPARD SERIES

Author: Christine Feehan

Series: LEOPARD SERIES (SMR)

Ratings: V4, S4, H2

Publishers and Titles:

     Fever (Berkley, 2006, reprint: contains both the novella, “The Awakening,” and the novel, Wild Rain)

     Wild Rain (Jove, 2004)
     Burning Wild (Jove, 2009)

     Wild Fire (Jove, 2010)

     Savage Nature (Jove, 2011)

     The newest book in the series (Savage Nature) is reviewed near the end of this synopsis of the series so far:

     This series tells the stories of a group of shape-shifting leopards, with locales ranging from the jungles of Borneo and Panama to the wide-open country of the American West to the swamps of Cajun country.

     Each male shifter meets and romances his soul mate as they fight off a series of predators, both human and supernatural. Angst levels are always high as a result of self-doubt, distrust, and miscommunications between each pair of lovers. Generally, each heroine is approaching the Han Vol Dan, a sexual awakening that occurs in young leopard-shifter females in this world. The series has been republished in a variety of media, including print, audio, and e-book.

     In Wild Rain, Rachel Lospostros, a naturalist, hides from a mysterious and dangerous assassin in the rain forests of Borneo, where she meets up with Rio Santana, one of the leopard people. The couple realizes that they are meant for one another, but Rio has dark secrets and Rachel is approaching an awakening that she doesn't really understand.

     In Burning Wild, Jake Bannaconni, another of the leopards, finally turns his back on his cruel and manipulative family and strikes out on his own on a ranch in Texas that was left to him by his grandfather. The early sections that detail the abuses of Jake's childhood are very graphic, in a stomach-turning sort of way. Since Jake has had difficulty with shifting (which was a huge bone of contention with his family), he goes off to the Borneo rain forest to find his heritage. There he meets several of the men who become part of his team (and stars of future books in the series). Back in the U.S., Jake gets involved with the pregnant Emma Reynolds, and they begin to fall in love. Since both the hero and the heroine have loads of unresolved issues from their pasts, the plot is extremely complex, but worth the effort to sort it all out.

     In Wild Fire, Conner Vega, yet another leopard shifter, is a native of the Panama rain forest. His soul mate turns out to be Isabeau Chandler, a Borneo shifter with whom he has had a failed relationship in the past. Although they know that they are true mates, they have remained apart—until now.

     In Savage Nature, Sari Boudreaux has grown up wild in the swamps of Louisiana Cajun country. She knows that her brothers are leopard shifters, but they don't know that she has discovered their secret. When Sari finds several murdered men in the swamp, she notifies the owner of the land about the problem, and that owner turns out to be Jake Bannaconni from Burning Wild. Jake sends Drake Donovan, his top investigator (and one of the friends he made in Borneo), to Louisiana to find out what's going on. You can guess what happens next.

    

     In each book, the story centers on the rise of the mating heat in the heroine, which tends to drive all males in the vicinity absolutely crazy. Each female heroine must mate with the male hero and then go on to solve the mystery posed in each plot. The male dominance and female submission can be a bit off-putting, but if you can get past that, the stories are told in Feehan's usual spell-binding manner.

     Christine Feehan is always a great story-teller, and she always includes lots of passionate (frequently raw) sex between the lead characters. Although the villain can usually be spotted by the reader a few chapters before he or she is unveiled on the page, the plots are still compelling. Each character, of course, has plenty of reason for many angst-filled interior monologues, mostly from terrible childhoods, but also from crippling self-esteem issues. I don't need to tell you much more than that. You've probably read some of Feehan's CARPATHIAN /DARK books, so you know that she's the real deal when it comes to paranormal romance.

UPDATE: Suzanne McLeod's SPELLCRACKERS Series

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Suzanne McLeod with a review of the newest book in her SPELLCRACKERS series: The Cold Kiss of Death. 

Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

=================== 

One more thing: Don't forgot to check out the search pages that will help you find your favorite authors, series, plot types, and creatures on this blog. The page tabs are located beneath the blog title near the top of the screen. Just click on the tabs to find these clickable lists: 

Author Search: alphabetical list of authors reviewed on this blog
Creature Search: titles/series sorted by their main creature types
Ratings: titles/series sorted by levels of violence, sensuality, and humor
Plot Types: titles/series sorted by type: soul-mate romances (SMR); urban fantasy (UF); chick lit (CH); and historical (HIS)

UPDATE! Suzanne McLeod's SPELLCRACKERS SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Suzanne McLeod with a review of the third book in her SPELLCRACKERS series: The Bitter Seed of Magic. 

Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

C. E. Murphy: THE WALKER PAPERS

Author:  C. E. Murphy (Catie)

Series:  THE WALKER PAPERS 
Plot Type:  UF

Ratings:   V3, S2, H3

Publisher and Titles:  Luna        

         Urban Shaman (1/2009)

        “Banshee Cries” in Winter Moon anthology (10/2009)

         Thunderbird Falls (6/2009)

         Coyote Dreams (6/2009)

         Walking Dead (9/2009)

         Demon Hunts (6/2010)

         Spirit Dances (3/2011) 

         Raven Calls (2/2012)

         No Dominion: The Walker Papers: A Garrison Report (1/2013, short stories from the points of view of various characters in the series)

        Mountain Echoes (2/2013)

         Shaman Rises (12/2013)

Free on-line stories:

         "Magic Hath an Element" (the first chapters of Urban Shaman from Gary's point of view[POV])

         "Rabbit Tricks" (comes after Coyote Dreams)

         "Forgotten But by a Few" (events in Spirit Dances from Gary's POV)

Cross-Over Novella:

         "Easy Pickings" (11/2012, e-novella by C. E. Murphy & Faith Hunter in which Joanne Walker and Jane Yellowrock have an adventure in an alternate New Orleans.)

     This post was revised and updated on 4/29/13 to include a review of the eighth book in the series: Mountain Echoes. That review comes first, followed by an overview of the world-building and brief reviews of books 6 and 7:

     BOOK 8: Mountain Echoes     

     When Joanne arrives back in the Qualla Boundary (the Cherokee reservation in North Carolina where she spent her unhappy teen years), she runs into all sorts of problems, some related to complicated human relationships and some connected with the supernatural, particularly the evil Master who has been chasing her since she was a child. In the previous book, Joanne and Gary trounced, but did not annihilate, the Master during their adventures in Ireland. Back in her high school years, Joanne was a sullen and hostile troublemaker, alienating most people in the Qualla with her bad attitude. Even though they soon realize that she is now a powerful shaman, they don't really want her help because they remember her as a bad seed.

     To review: Just as Joanne and Gary ended their adventure in Ireland, Jane got a phone call from her former friend, Sara Isaac, telling her to come home because Jane's father has disappeared. Back in high school, Joanne and Sara were BFFs, but then Jane slept with (and was impregnated by) a boy whom Sara secretly loved, and Sara has been hostile towards Jane ever since. Sara left the reservation to become an FBI agent, and she showed up in Seattle in Demon Hunts to help in the search for a supernatural serial killer. Sara is now married to Lucas, the father of Joanne's twins, and when Joanne learns that Lucas is also missing, she has to deal with Sara's fears for Lucas's safety as well as her fears that Joanne and Lucas will somehow fall in love and leave her behind. (There's nothing like a slap of bad high school backlash to stop a pair of strong, independent 21st century heroines right in their tracks!)

     Not only does Joanne have to deal with the hostility of the folks on the reservation, she must decide how to handle meeting her son for the first time since he was born. Aidan is now 12 years old, and he has wicked shamanic powers. He was adopted by a woman on the reservation who fears that Joanne will threaten her relationship with Aidan. Then Aiden goes off into the mountains alone, and Joanne has three people to find—all with a personal connection to her past. The story follows Joanne and—shockingly!—Morrison as they figure out what's going on and try to find the two missing men. This involves some time travel, a series of battles, and some great scenes between Joanne and Morrison—the ones we've been waiting for since book 1.

     The action part of the conflict is based on the pain suffered by the land that was damaged over the centuries by the exploitations of the white settlers and how that pain is now being used by the Master to create a chaotic situation that draws Joanne and Morrison right into the grasp of his Executioner. The story has a few periods of dense mythology that are (as usual) somewhat difficult to navigate, but for the most part, it moves right along with lots of action and emotion.

     The emotional part of the conflict involves the angst of Joann'e extremely complicated family relationships. Jane gets a chance to reunite with her father and learn why he never taught her to use her magical talents, and Morrison is able to prove that he is the right man for Joanne as he steadfastly backs her up both physically and emotionally throughout the story. Adding to the emotional mix is Joanne's newly developing relationship with her son, who is now an adolescent who belongs to his adopted mother, not to Joanne. If you're a regular series reader, I'd recommend this book for the Morrison story line alone. Both the development of the action and the depth of the characterization (particularly for Lester Lee, the sheriff (who has had a long-time crush on Joanne), and Sara (the nemesis) are well done, adding just the right amount of personal conflict to an exhilarating adventure.

      WORLD-BUILDING     

     Siobhan Grainne MacNamarra Walkingstick (aka “Joanne Walker”) is a six-foot tall, half-Cherokee, half-Irish police officer in Seattle. She is also a trained and experienced auto mechanic, which was her first job with the police department. Although Joanne has changed her Native American name and repressed her heritage for most of her life, a near-death experience triggers her abilities as a shaman, and she begins to use trances and dreams to move back and forth between astral realms, trying to solve both human and immortal problems. As the series progresses, Joanne's powers become quite strong—strong enough, in fact, to cause an earthquake and create a waterfall.

     Joanne's sidekick is cab-driver Gary Muldoon, who drums Joanne into her trances (he's away on a trip so he doesn't appear in Spirit Dances); her partner is Billy Holiday, a medium whose wife (Melinda) is a witch. Joanne’s nemesis (and possible love interest, she hopes) is her boss, Captain Michael Morrison, who tries to ignore Joanne’s magic but keeps being drawn into it. Her magical, mystical mentor is Coyote, who can take three different shapes: his namesake furry animal self, a red-skinned man, or an actual human. Joanne also has two other mystical helpers (Raven and Snake) who assist her in her magic and help her get out of the jams into which she constantly puts herself.

     Story lines in earlier books include an evil banshee who kills several humans in a quest for power, an ancient Celtic god who leads the Wild Hunt in search of a missing Rider, a coven of witches who try to reanimate an ancient spirit, and a zombie invasion of Seattle. Plots are mystically labyrinthine at times—particularly during Joanne’s frequent dreams and trances as she visits other planes of existence. The author doesn't provide much background information for Joanne's forays into various mythological pantheons, so it's easy for the reader to feel a bit lost at times.

     BOOK 6: Spirit Dances     
     In book 6, Joanne's powers have advanced to an astonishing degree, and that development proceeds even further in this story. As usual, the disparate incidents in which Joanne gets involved seem unrelated, but no—they're all connected. So...here they are: A woman whose life was saved by Joanne's magic presents Joanne with tickets to a Native American dance program; the lead dancer of the dance troupe is magically murdered (while Joanne and Morrison are in the audience on an actual date—hurray!); Joanne cures a woman's breast cancer; and a homeless man has his throat torn out on the streets of Seattle. Yes, indeed...they're connected, and Joanne and her magic are at the center of it all. Once again, the plots are outrageous in their inexplicability, but the action never stops, and Joanne's adventures are endlessly entertaining. I guarantee that you will gasp out loud at what Joanne does to Morrison in this story.

     As the book ends, Joanne and Morrison have taken a small step forward in their relationship, but Joanne is off to Ireland on the heels of a vision that is in some way related to her mother.  

     BOOK 7: Raven Calls     

     To be absolutely alliterative about it, the plot of this book is confusing, chaotic, cryptic, and convoluted. As the story begins, Joanne is boarding a plane to Ireland in hopes of finding a cure for the werewolf bite she received the night before (at the end of the previous book). When she arrives, who should turn up at the Dublin Airport to meet her but her buddy, Gary Muldoon, who was ordered by Joanne's boyfriend/boss, Michael Morrison, to fly to her aid. Joanne and Gary head for the magical Hill of Tara, and this is where the madness begins. The plot seesaws its way back and forth in time as Joanne meets, converses with, and/or battles a series of supernatural beings. This is, unfortunately, a plot that is totally driven by immense quantities of Irish mythology and uncontrolled time travel. We get all of Joanne's Native American shamanism (her spirit animals, magic Garden, and magic sword) plus an overdose of Irish mythology (see below). Even Joanne's buddy/nemesis, Cernunnos, shows up to make another leering pass at her while he helps her win a battle or two. Due to the time travel situation, Joanne fights some of the mythological bad guys and gals more than once—in the far-past, the near-past, and the present.

     Here are some of the mythological beings Joanne meets. Click on the pink links for more information. Maybe if you read that information first, the plot will make more sense:

  > Meabh (aka Maeve): Queen of Connacht, wife of Aillil, The Morrigan's daughter, and a distant relative of Joanne's. She's one of Joanne's supporters. 

  > The Morrigan: Goddess of battle and strife, she's sworn allegiance to the Master and is Joanne's primary foe in this book even though she is also a distant ancestor. 

  > The Banshees: Fairy women who are the harbingers of death. In this book, the Banshees are sworn to the Master and are bringing death rather than foretelling it. Joanne's mother is one of the Banshees. 

  > Brigid: Another Irish fairy woman who shows up a few times to converse with Joanne in a friendly manner. 

  > The Master: He is apparently the god of Death and Destruction and The Morrigan is his assistant. Joanne has been battling him and his minions for many months. Other than "the Master," no other name is given. Is he Satan? I just don't know.

  > Lugh and Nuada: Mythological Irish high kings who show up to move the story along. Both are friendly to Joanne. Nuada crafts Joanne's necklace—the one her mother gave her. That necklace keeps showing up around various necks throughout the story, depending on what time period they're in. 

  > Gancanagh: A male fairy who tries to help Joanne, but causes trouble the entire time he's with her because he has the ability to seduce women by taking the form of the one they love best. You can guess whose form he takes for Joanne. Unfortunately, Joanne's traveling companion at that point is Maebh, and to her he looks like her cheating former husband, Aillil. Much violence ensues when Joanne and Maebh throw some jealous fits.

     Along with her search for a cure for her werewolf bite, Joanne is also trying to save her late mother's soul. Throughout the book, Joanne behaves like an obnoxious adolescent, just the way she did in the early books of the series. Whenever she meets—or re-meets—one of the goddesses, she immediately begins the dialogue with wisecracks and rude remarks. Only at the very end does she have a face-to-face encounter with her younger "self" and finally puts that younger side of her to rest, hopefully forever.

     You may have noticed that I haven't given you a plot summary, and that's because the "plot" is either too confusing for me to understand, or it is just plain nonexistent. This is by far the weakest book in a series that, up until now, I've enjoyed immensely. In the next book, Joanne heads back to North Carolina to search for her father, who has gone missing. Let's hope that the mythology thins out and that Joanne has a few real-world experiences—preferably with Michael Morrison, who is entirely absent from this book. Well, not entirely, there are two phone calls in which they FINALLY admit that they love one another. 

     One last warning: I highly recommend that you read Spirit Dances before you read this book. Really, you should read one right after the other. I read Spirit Dances a year ago, and many of the details of that story line have slipped my memory. Luckily, I could dredge up a few bits and pieces of that plot so I could stumble through, but I can't imagine that a reader would be able to get through this book without some knowledge of the events that climaxed  Spirit Dances.